This is not yet in the House Judiciary Committee website [SEE HERE]; however, according to a press release [SEE HERE], House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has made appointments to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government [pdf here].

Including the subcommittee Chairman, Jim Jordan (which is a surprise), it looks like the committee will contain a total of 12 republican representatives.

Darrell ISSA (CA), Thomas Massie (KY), Chris Stewart (UT), Elise Stefanik (NY), Mike Johnson (LA), Chip Roy (TX), Kelly Armstrong (ND), Greg Steube (FL), Dan Bishop (NC), Kat Cammack (FL) and Harriet Hageman (WY).  Overall, a pretty solid group with good legal outlooks.

[Source, House Speaker website]

I am surprised that McCarthy is making Judiciary Chairman, Jim Jordan, also the subcommittee chairman.  However, against the backdrop of McCarthy worrying the subcommittee is going to face massive scrutiny, having Jordan at the helm of it does make sense.  Also, with the Chair of the Judiciary able to trigger subpoenas, having Jordan as Chair of the subcommittee makes the subpoena aspect more expeditious. Oh, and hi guys.

There are likely to be five Democrats also assigned [per prior subcommittee authorization rules].

Dan Bishop and Mike Johnson are both strong judicial and courtroom litigators. Chris Stewart a little less so, more formal, but on contracts etc, still good.  Darryl Issa knows the narrow curves of the swamp from his former role as House Oversight Committee Chair, so that could be helpful.    Thomas Massie, a contrarian constitutionalist, and Elise Stefanik a solid strategist. Chip Roy, Kelly Armstrong and Greg Steube  are good street fighters. Harriet Hageman and Kat Cammack, newer but strong in their own right.  This is a pretty solid team.

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The New York Times and Politico represent the best interests of the DOJ and FBI.  The Washington Post represents the interests of the CIA and ODNI.  CNN represents the interests of the U.S. State Dept.   These are the public-private media partnerships that have evolved over decades, and the outcomes are consistent.

Adam Goldman is a man of notoriously slimy disposition, who operates as a New York Times stenographer for the administrative state.  Goldman loves to see the targeting of Americans by the DOJ and FBI apparatus and is intoxicated by his perceived assistance in the destruction of others.  Goldman genuinely gets pleasure in seeing his targets suffer under the weight of the U.S. justice system. It brings him joy.

After Adam Goldman and the DOJ/FBI worked together in the operation to target James O’Keefe (Ashley Biden diary), O’Keefe is dragging the relationship out into the open. Goldman does not like it when the tables are turned, and he becomes the target of sunlight.  WATCH:

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People are asking if President Trump is being sincere or trumpy sarcastic.

The answer would appear to be, yes.

[Source]

Live your best life, ignore dark imaginings, laugh often – regardless of circumstance, and beware of inbound Brittany Spears memes…

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Something tells me at the end of this rainbow the omnipotent DC administrative statists and professional bureaucrats will have defined any/all documents to be classified material.   Yes Alice, as I personally learned during my explorations of the geography, 2023 will be the year voters realize elected politicians simply rent time and space amid a siloed system entirely controlled by the Fourth Branch of Government.

With the nature of the surveillance state unfolding, smart investors are funding companies who create burn bags, incinerators, faraday cages and burner phones and let’s make carbon paper great again.

The latest discoveries come from the offices of former Vice President, and former lead of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Mike Pence.

WASHINGTON DC – A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division have launched a review of the documents and how they ended up in Pence’s house in Indiana.

The classified documents were discovered at Pence’s new home in Carmel, Indiana, by a lawyer for Pence in the wake of the revelations about classified material discovered in President Joe Biden’s private office and residence, the sources said. The discovery comes after Pence has repeatedly said he did not have any classified documents in his possession.

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There is a pending energy issue looming just beyond the horizon that is going to become a major issue very soon.   Electricity rates, natural gas costs and home heating oil prices increased massively due to Joe Biden energy policy.  However, things are likely to get much worse in a few months.

On the issue of oil and gasoline prices, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has dropped 40% since Joe Biden began using it to offset massive global prices increases in oil.  However, Biden is doing nothing to increase production and has not engaged energy producers in conversation to expand domestic production. Non pretending warning HERE.

Ultimately what this means is another wave of sicky price increases for gasoline are coming fast.

Additionally, Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), is warning that continued pressure on natural gas supplies by exporting U.S. production to Europe is going to make our electricity rates go even higher as more than 40% of U.S. electricity generated comes from the use of natural gas.  Wolfe wrote a letter in October to Energy Secretary Granholm [SEE HERE], and the situation is unfolding exactly as he warned.

Electricity rates have jumped massively in the past year, and it looks like they are going to continue to rise.  The spring and summer of 2023 looks to deliver another round of higher oil prices, higher natural gas prices, higher electricity prices and higher gasoline prices.   Which brings me to the question…

It is challenging to find solid data (without noise) on regional electricity, home heating and natural gas prices. However, Treehouse readers consistently provide the most accurate assessments of reality on the ground.  You guys are the experts in checkbook economics. So, I ask you the question:

How much have your electricity, natural gas and/or home heating costs increased in the past year?

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Intellectually honest observers have long realized that Antifa, as an organized domestic violence movement in the United States, could not exist if it was not supported directly or with willful blindness by the FBI. Sometimes you just have to accept things as they are, and not as you would wish them to be.

If the FBI did not support Antifa, it would be simple to target their financial mechanisms, fundraising platforms and social media networks that showcase their communications. If the FBI didn’t support Antifa, they would simply target the networks and arrest the participants for domestic terror related activity. It is not that difficult to see the FBI doesn’t do this because the FBI/DOJ support the violence.

During his opening monologue Monday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson outlines exactly this issue. WATCH:

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RevCom (Revolutionary Communists), Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Antifa etc. it’s all one long continuum of the same participants.   However, in order to accept the ideology that surrounds it, the complicit media and U.S. justice system must pretend not to know things.

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House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries has resubmitted Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff to be placed on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), despite notice from House Speaker Keven McCarthy that Swalwell and Schiff would not be permitted.

Due to the sensitivity of the House intel committee, there are special rules permitting the Speaker to assign or reject nominations without a House vote, so this effort by Jeffries is political posturing.

WASHINGTON DC – The head of House Democrats has submitted Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to sit on the powerful Intelligence Committee, setting up a battle with Republican leaders who are vowing to keep them off the panel.

Separately, Democrats this week are also expected to seat Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to a source familiar with the Democrats’ plans, which will likely prompt GOP leaders to hold a floor vote to remove her.

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There is A LOT going on inside this story, and the pair of indictments only scratch the surface.

[WaPo – New York Times – ABC News]

According to the DOJ, “A former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI New York Counterintelligence Division [Charles F. McGonigal, 54, of New York City] and a former Soviet and Russian diplomat [Sergey Shestakov, 69, of Morris, Connecticut] were arrested Saturday on criminal charges related to their alleged violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering.

Interestingly, there are two sets of indictments.  The first is in New York related to the U.S. sanctions against Russia, specifically Oleg Deripaska  [SEE HERE].  The second is in DC related to money laundering, payments from Deripaska [SEE HERE].  The New York case is related to post retirement activity in 2021.  The DC case is related to activity when Charles F McGonigal was taking money from Russians, and apparently others, while simultaneously investigating Donald Trump, “from August 2017 and continuing through and beyond his retirement from the FBI in September 2018.”

It would appear, Main Justice in DC is concerned about the timeline and are structuring the money laundering prosecution to keep tight control in Washington DC, for the period when McGonical was a special agent in charge.   However, given the backstory of the players involved, and known 2021 FARA filings that hit on the organizations involved, the FBI and DOJ have known about this issue for quite some time, at least 18 months prior to the indictments today.

These indictments are a rabbit hole that runs sideways from the Trump-Russia collusion nonsense and includes the use of “contractors” in 2021 that McGonigal had to know from his time in the FBI counterintelligence operations.

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